Recently, I read the book titled OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell.  It’s a great book and I recommend it to anyone.  One of the chapters discussed something which I’d not considered in quite awhile.  Specifically, it talked about the fact that students who come from upper and middle income families do so much better on standardized test scores in the Fall than students from low income families.  The point was that the students who did well were provided many more opportunities to learn and become engaged in activities over the summer months than the other students.  The amount of difference was staggering.  It’s led me to focus on how we in Reading might do our part to close this gap.

Speaking of test scores and Reading Elementary, recent statistics reflect that our youngsters are doing extremely well.  I have received the annual Accountability Report which reflects Annual Yearly Progress relative to the goals in the No Child Left Behind Act.  Our goal for this year in Math was a score of 427 and we scored 452.  In Reading , our goal was 435 and we scored 468.  These numbers are determined by the State.  Incidentally, we’ve exceeded the goals for the past four years.  You might think that I would just be extremely proud of these scores and say nothing more.  However, we know that there is more to a well-educated child than good test scores.  If I ask parents whether they want their child to be a “good student” or a “good person”, I guess that they would say “Both!”.  Yet, there’s been such a focus on standardized testing that I worry we as a nation might lose sight of the need to help develop youngsters who are socially and emotionally well-adjusted and who have the skills to become good citizens and contribute to their communities.  In Reading Elementary, I am proud of our test scores, but I am even prouder of those students who are not only becoming more competent and confident but who are also becoming more caring,  May we all think about this.  I doubt we will ever see a time when NCLB(or any federal law)sets a goal relative to measuring caring,  Yet, as we’ve seen regarding such debatable issues as stem cell research, nuclear weapons, the banking crisis and other matters, we as a nation not only need excellent academic skills but also people who focus on the values which are related to decisions.

                                                                                      Ray Pentkowski

                                                                                      Principal